Monroe

Chapter Three Hundred and Seventy-Four. A Brave New World.

Bob had spent quite a bit of time thinking about not only the differences between pre-integration Earth and Thayland but also the results of integration.

More specifically, he'd been thinking about the Freedom.

Aleksander Ivanovich Vasiliev had spent less than a thousand Mana Crystals to construct his ship, while the Freedom had cost them millions, but ultimately they'd served the same purpose.

Ultimately, the Freedom had been designed for a worst-case scenario. With its mana sails and shields, it was capable of traversing a solar system without being detected, at least not with the instruments they had available. It was completely self-sufficient, or at least it had been before the coalescence rate of Mana Crystals had dropped like a rock. Assuming an adequate supply of crystals, it was still capable of sailing through the cosmos for years without any need for resupply.

Even with the modifications they'd made, it was still incredibly expensive to operate. With his new ability to jump directly from solar system to solar system, it was almost wasteful to use the Freedom.

That was one of the reasons they'd split the group, sending a team to gather crystals. Bob knew they'd be speed running the Dungeon, going after crystals, not experience. They'd be gathering three thousand crystals a day, which would have allowed them to build up a stockpile, if the second jump hadn't provided a potentially viable world.

He was letting his thoughts wander as the data came in.

The current estimate was that the planet was slightly smaller than Earth, and they were certain that it wasn't tidally locked. It definitely had weather systems, and assuming the blue was water, the planet's surface was covered with it by maybe sixty-percent. It had two moons, one a quarter the size of Earth's moon, and another a sixth. The software was doing all of the heavy lifting in terms of calculating values based on the data gathered, but Bob was well aware that this was well outside his area of expertise.

They were a few days away from making orbit, and everyone was more than a little restless. He'd resumed his lessons on casting without the aid of the System, a necessity now that skill points were so precious.

Fortunately, he had the Old Ways achievement to help him grow vegetables, and he still had his Arcane Depths which allowed him to gather a few monsters for meat.

Jessica had shown the most aptitude for system-less casting, followed by Dave, then Amanda, while Harv and Eli were both finding it more difficult. All of them had been able to cast an Anima Blast spell now, which was one of the goals Bob had set. Jessica, as their dedicated healer, had been able to accomplish the task quickly. He'd been tempted to attribute her success to her ability to cast the spell with the System, allowing her to compare the mana patterns more easily, but she'd then proven herself by managing a Control Air and a Control Water spell.

It was obvious to Bob that the selections he'd made as he had advanced to Pinnacle, then Paragon, then evolving to Wayfarer had a cumulative effect on the ease with which they'd been able to manipulate mana. He suspected that Harv and Eli were suffering more of a mental block than any lack of ability. They'd been told that it required years of hard work and dedication to cast a single spell without the aid of the System.

He'd quietly wondered just where the information had come from, as he'd heard it from both Kelli and Austan. Oddly, he hadn't heard it from Thidwell, who had been aware of what he was doing.

"It looks pretty enough," Dave said as he entered the bridge, gesturing towards the floating image of the planet.

"It does," Bob agreed, "but look at this and tell me what you think."

Bob tapped his armband and the image flickered, then the planet began to spin, the white clouds spinning, stretching, dispersing and forming again.

Dave watched as the planet spun, the image starting of fuzzy, the resolution slowly improving before it finally stopped.

"What was I looking for?" Dave asked.

"Compare that to this," Bob said, tapping his armband as another planet appeared next to the first, this one easily recognizable as Earth.

They both flickered and began to spin again, the first planet once again fuzzy, while Earth remained sharp.

"Oh," Dave muttered.

"Given its size, this one isn't likely to be our real target unless it's comprised of super heavy elements, but if it's habitable, whoever lives here is going to want to keep an eye on the weather channel," Bob said wryly.

"It looked like there was ice at the poles," Dave mused. "I didn't see any snow in the mountains."

"I haven't been able to find any mountains at all," Bob replied. "Or at least none without trees, or whatever that greenery is."

"Man, I can't get over this," Dave grinned. "We're out here in space, exploring a brand new solar system, looking at a possibly habitable planet. It's straight-up science fiction."

Bob nodded. "If you'd told me five years ago that I'd be exploring alternate universes in a spaceship I helped build with my magic powers..." He chuckled.

Monroe decided it was the right time to insert himself into the conversation, plopping his head onto Bob's lap.

Rubbing the ears of his Feline Overlord, Bob continued. "Of course, I always knew that Monroe was just waiting for his growth spurt."

"He is huge," Dave agreed, moving to stand beside Bob and running a hand over Monroe's silky fur. "It makes me wonder what we'll find in terms of wildlife down there."

"I'm a little more worried about the monsters," Bob replied. "All the Dungeons are going to be in an overflow state, so there are going to be a lot of monsters down there. If it turns out to be closer to Mars in terms of gravity, we won't have a problem sweeping it clear."

"Should we even bother?" Dave asked. "I mean, if it's a tier four planet, it's not really worth much."

"I'd like to know what the reward is for getting the first clear on an entire planet," Bob replied with a grin.

Dave blinked. "Shit, I forgot about that. Yes, we should absolutely clear the planet to make sure that the people who come to stay there won't have to do it themselves."

"Let's go with that," Bob agreed.

"We are now in orbit," Bob announced.

"I know it's not our first new planet, but still, this is amazing," Amanda said.

"Drone is online, Bob, would you mind dropping a portal to get it down there?" Dave asked.

Bob nodded, and fell through a portal into the room where they kept the drones. It took less than a minute to ritually open a portal for the drone to fly through, a benefit of his achievements and path.

Stepping through another portal, he arrived back on the bridge.

"Alright, we've got a sample of the air. It's definitely a little windy, and I think the gravity is actually stronger than Earth's," Dave reported as he worked the controls for the drone. "Dropping down to check out the vegetation."

"No hentai planet, come on no hentai planet," Jessica murmured.

Everyone was watching a projected display from the drone's camera as it descended.

"Hot and humid," Amanda noted, pointing at the bottom corner of the display, which indicated that it was eighty-nine degrees Fahrenheit, with seventy-one percent humidity.

The vegetation became clear as Dave maneuvered the drone.

"It looks like a cross between a palm tree and a willow," Bob said thoughtfully. The trees had smooth trunks with dozens of flexible branches at the top, which in turn had fronds that each ended with a large, broad leaf. The fronds and leaves were a dark, dusky green.

The planet had four continents and two large archipelagos, discounting the ice at the poles. Two of the continents were separated by a relatively narrow stretch of ocean, while the other two were almost opposite those two, with much more distant from each other. The two that were nearest to each other stretched along the equator, while the other two were in the northern and southern hemispheres, respectively.

They had chosen to establish orbit over the smallest continent, which was in the southern hemisphere. It was covered in vegetation, with several large bodies of water providing relief from the vast tracts of forest.

The drone was less than a mile in from the ocean, and would be able to pick up a sample of not only the ocean, but also a river only a few hundred feet away.

"I'm going to check under the canopy," Dave announced, "but I'll need to come in from the river; it's too thick to go in from the top, especially with this wind."

"Let's grab a sample of the ocean and the river first," Bob suggested, "between those and the air sample, we'll know if it's something we can drop down into."

"Alright," Dave agreed. "But I'm going to want another drone down there right away," he grumbled.

"Well, it's got a bit more of everything except nitrogen," Jessica said. "Argon, Xenon, Ozone, Carbon Dioxide, Hydrogen, Carbon Monoxide, Methane, and Oxygen are all up a bit, with Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide as the bigger winners, up almost a percent each. It's something we can definitely breathe."

"Water is water," Amanda said with a shrug. "Both fresh and salt are swimming with organisms, but we don't have the equipment to know more than they are there. I can tell you that both of them have higher concentrations of heavy elements, although they're still just traces. The computer says they don't even make the grade for detectable pollution."

"We were going to be using a water purification setup no matter where we landed," Bob replied.

"The bad news is that this isn't our new home," Dave announced. "Gravity is at twelve meters per second, per second."

"That's still good news," Bob said.

"Assuming there isn't anything too terrible down there, this is the perfect place for tier six or seven people to move on to, rather than draining the capacity of the Dungeons," Harv said.

"We might even be able to make a little progress grinding our skills up while we clear the Dungeons down," Eli agreed.

"Let's start seeding the satellites then," Bob grinned. "We'll get the planet mapped out in terms of mana flows to pinpoint the Dungeons, then we'll hop back and pick up everyone else."

"Aye, aye, captain," Jessica replied with a jaunty salute.

"Benefits of technology as opposed to magic," Dave muttered as he piloted the drone.

The group was watching as a horde of insectoid monsters clashed with a different horde of humanoid reptilian monsters.

At least, that was the best description Bob could come up with. If it had twelve appendages and an exoskeleton, insect was about the best he could do. Humanoid with scales and tail? Reptilian.

Both groups were completely ignoring the drone as they tore each other apart. Combatants from both sides were dispersing moments after they fell, evidence that they were monsters, not naturally born creatures.

"If it doesn't have a matrix, they aren't interested," Bob agreed.

"It looks like they are getting a steady stream of reinforcements," Amanda pointed to the edged of the screen, and Dave maneuvered the drone, bringing the approach of a fresh wave of monsters into view."

"Following it back should bring us to the Dungeon, right?" Amanda asked.

"It should," Bob agreed.

"What do you think, head to the Dungeon then do a spiral pattern out, see just how monsters are in the area?" Dave asked.

"Sounds like a good idea to me," Bob sighed. "Although I think that we're going to have to clear the Dungeons if we want any peace and quiet."

"Maybe we should start on one of the islands," Jessica suggested. "It'd be a lot easier to clear a couple of Dungeons rather than dozens, yeah?"

"She's not wrong," Dave agreed.

"Of course, she isn't," Amanda sniffed. "Great idea Jessi!"

"Considering we're going to have to clear the monsters that have already overflowed, I have to agree," Bob said. "I mean, we could just drop on top of the Dungeons and clear them, but if these are tier six or seven monsters at or near the tier cap, we're going to have to wait quite a while for them to disperse on their own. We might do exactly that on the continents, but I'd like to have a safe place to operate from."

"I miss Mike," Dave sighed. "He'd be telling us that it's called a beachhead right about now."

"I do too," Bob admitted. "But we'll have the gang back together soon enough."

"Want me to pull back?" Dave asked. "If we're going to setup on an island, we'd probably be better off exploring that."

"Yeah," Bob nodded. "Bring it back up and I'll do a swap then portal back in."

The method they'd chosen for drone retrieval relied on one of Bob's special skills.

Special Skill 'Summoning Switch' granted. This skill allows the user to expend an amount of mana equal to maximum number of Thresholds reached in the Summoning School, and the spells within it, to switch places with a summoned object or creature. This skill will fail if there is not sufficient space available for either the user or the object at their destination.

Jack had come up with the idea of having Bob summon a metal bolt using another of his skills, Timeless Object, and simply using the 'Summoning Switch' skill, trading places with the bolt. As it turned out, whatever the bolt was attached to came with it.

They hadn't discovered a weight limit, but at the moment it was limited to a sixteen-foot cube in terms of size.

The drone was less than four feet across, and barely two feet high, and presented no obstacle.

Bob put up a persistent effect flight spell as he walked down to the room where the drones were stored. Once there, he positioned himself where he wanted the drone to arrive, and activated his skill.

He found himself hovering in the air, the new planet beneath his feet.

The air smelled slightly sharper, but it wasn't unpleasant. He was four thousand feet up, and the temperature was rather nice, although he reminded himself that he needed to compliment Dave on his piloting skill. The wind was strong, but also energetic, constantly shifting.

Although the sun was close to being overhead, the difference between the light of Earth or Thayland's sun was significant. It felt like it was closer to evening, the clouds above reflecting a light orangish yellow.

The temptation to descend and investigate this new world was strong, but he resisted. This was an experience he wanted to share with his friends.